FHWorld16: Converting Fire Knowledge to Practice in the Fire Service

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Safe firefighting is about having the right person make the right decision at the right time for the right reason and one way to insure that is through education.

Geoff Randall, a firefighter first class with the Ottawa Fire Services in Canada, presented “From Knowledge to Practice: Embedding Scientific Knowledge of Fire Dynamics in Fire Operations" at Firehouse World. Randall has been a firefighter with Ottawa since 2008.

“There is a large body of experience in the fire service and we need to have the science learn from the firefighters,” Randall said. He added that part of what is known about fire and the fire service is how the practice becomes general knowledge.

At the same time, there’s plenty to study and to convert from knowledge to practice, Randall said.

“We all need to seek knowledge in fire to try to become better firefighters,” Randall said.

Randall said his department secured a $1.2 million grant to study fire dynamics and fire science after a serious fire in Ottawa in February 2007, known as the Forward Avenue fire. Five firefighters suffered critical injuries when they were forced to bail from the fourth story of a structure fire. All five survived and returned to work after physically healing.

“A lot of studies get motivated when we kill or nearly kill firefighters,” Randall said, noting that the Forward Avenue fire was the catalyst for the Ottawa study that took on international significance with agencies from Canada, the United States and beyond participating. He added there was significant support from industry too and the department received about $2.8 million of “in kind” support.

“We’ve had a lot of involvement from a lot of people,” Randall said, noting that there’s some education you can’t get from books.

Work on the study continues, but Randall said there’s a goal of having all the lessons and knowledge from the research to be available on line, for free, by this fall.

Among the lessons and goals is one that will make sure firefighters use common terminology. For example, Randall said some agencies use the term interface layer and others use the term neutral layer to describe the same thing.

“It’s an important thing that needs to be done,” Randall said.

Randall spent some time describing the mnemonic VP = BE + SAHF.

“VP” stands for ventilation profile and “BE” stands for building profile, Randall said.

Type of construction, as in legacy versus lightweight should be considered, Randall said, as well as the tightness of the building and wind, topography and temperature.

The “SAHF” portion of the mnemonic stands for smoke, air, heat and flame indicators, he said.

“This all needs to be considered together,” Randall said.

As for smoke, movement, flow path, buoyancy, volume, color, velocity should be considered when making fireground decisions, Randall said.

Air is also important, and Randall said it’s often forgotten at fire scenes because it is invisible.

“Yet, it is the most important factor in the growth of the fire,” Randall said. He added firefighters need to pay attention to inlet and outlet velocity and whether it is bi-directional.

“When you learn fire dynamics, you need to apply them.”

Randall reminded the audience that ventilation is the exhaust of smoke from a residence.

“Ventilation tactics and fire control must be closely monitored,” he said, adding that a thermal imaging camera is important to have during ventilation to monitor conditions. “We need to get the hot smoke out and the cool air in.”

Randall also said it is training that is the final step in converting knowledge to practice.

“Everything in the fire service is evolutionary not revolutionary,” Randall said. “…We need to be better firefighters and get better at our jobs.”